Read the small print

Nobody ever suggested that dentists didn't have enough to do. It's not just that every day there's a full list of patients to see, with all the responsibility of safely delivering high quality care, which after all is every dentist's raison d'être; it's the other, daily, weekly, monthly and annual tasks which attend the running of any small business which compound the problem. There are always too many non-clinical, peripheral chores and not enough time to properly complete them. Then there's the paperwork.....

There has never been as much bureaucracy surrounding dentistry as there is today; even in an area as basic as infection control, the goalposts seem to shift with monotonous frequency, demanding more and more time to fill in, for example, staff training and sterilisation records. A dentist attending a recent convention was heard to remark, only half humorously, that perhaps he should instruct his cleaner to count and record her brush strokes when sweeping the waiting room floor.